A Lesson in Success from Multi-Billionaire Donald Trump

Donald Trump is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of his generation and he has amassed a wealth that many people would only wish they could achieve. Donald Trump was born in mid 1930s and was born in Queens, New York in America. Mr Trump is one of the most well known business magnates, investors and TV personalities of his time. Among owning the most extravagant buildings and businesses in the world, he is also a renowned author and has many business books such as Trump University Real Estate 101 and Trump: How to Get Rich.

Donald has been on countless number of rich lists and his net worth is estimated to be around $10 billion. Here are some of his tips on how he got successful and how you can implement them into your business and life as well.

Keep Consistent and Never Give Up

Donald Trump never gives up when it comes to anything. Whether it comes to his business or personal life, he never gives in. He is the rich ultra successful guy because he never gives up and he always works towards his goal, one step at a time. 

Ignore The Naysayers

You will always get people out there who say stuff like "You can't do it", "Why are you even trying" or "You're just going to fail".You have to ignore those people because those kind of people only say things like that because either they can't do it, or they want to see you fail. Donald Trump does not care what people say or think about him. He just does what he does, and this is the type of attitude you are going to have to develop

"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game."- Donald Trump 

Do What You Love 

This is one of the things most successful people do. Following your passion and doing what you love is very important when it comes to business, or anything else. If you follow your passion, success will follow you. It is very important to follow your passion because you will enjoy what you do. Business and Real Estate was Donald's passion. Whats yours? 

Be Optimistic

Whatever you do always keep a positive outlook on life. Never think negative and always try to keep negative thoughts as far out of your head as possible. The Donald always thinks positive, that is why he is so successful. For more information on optimism and developing the mindset, check out the Law of Attraction and The Secret.

It's Never Easy

The Road to success is never an easy path. You will get obstacles in the way, and you will face challenges and hardships. But if it was that easy everyone would be successful. Do whatever it takes to get successful and never stop. Donald Trump faced many challenges in his life such as getting bankrupt a numerous amounts of time. But he still turned his life around and is now a multi-billionaire.

Think and Dream BIG

Finally we would like to leave you with the final point of Trump's success; Always have BIG dreams and always think BIG. The bigger you think the better. Never place any limitations on yourself. Always be pushing yourself and never settle for any less. 

Thank you for reading the article and we would like to wish you all the best in your journey to becoming successful. If you have any of your own tips, please include them in the comment section. Be sure to Follow us and Like us on Facebook. 

Technology Giants and Lawsuits: Apple vs HTC vs Samsung

Technology is everywhere we look nowadays.  There’s technology in our smartphones, our TV’s and even our doors. It has helped us achieve many things. However there have been many issues regarding multinational technology companies falling out. One of the major stories involving two of the biggest technology firms is South Korean company Samsung and America Corporation Apple.  There are many lawsuits that these two companies have put against each other for the design of their respected phones and tablets. The first lawsuit began in the spring of 2011 and by August 2011 Apple and Samsung were litigating 19 on-going cases, in nine countries.  In July 2012 the two companies were involved in a staggering 50 lawsuits between each other, with billions of dollars of damages claimed against each other. While Apple won a ruling in its favor in the U.S., Samsung won rulings in South Korea, Japan, and the UK. Apples first lawsuit was because of the comparison between the Apple iPhone 3GS and the Samsung Galaxy i9000 which Apple provided comparison photos. Later on these photos were found to be tampered with to match dimensions and style.

Recently Taiwanese firm HTC and Apple had a very public dispute between each other. Apple accused HTC of ‘cloning products’ and coping features such as ‘pinch to zoom’. After a lengthy court case they reached a global settlement that included the dismissal of all current lawsuits and a ten-year license agreement. The license extends to current and future patents held by both parties. According to the document, Apple main concern was the alleged cloning of iPhone's slide-to-unlock prompt at the bottom of the screen as something that "could qualify as a distinctive Apple user experience; however, a different animation (for example, a bubble slider) or an animation at another location ... would not be considered substantially similar and would not consitute a cloned feature."

Apple sued Samsung over simlarlities over the iPhone 3GS and Samsung S i9000

The terms of the settlement are confidential. During a press conference CEO of HTC, Peter Chou said “HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation.” After the court case, CEO of Apple Tim Cook stated “We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC,” said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. “We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.”

Moving away from smartphones, Social Network giant Facebook has also faced many lawsuits over privacy issues and what they do with personal information of its users. Another one of Facebook’s company Instagram, has also faced its fear share of court cases. In its Term of Services it stated "may share User Content and your information (including but not limited to, information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data)" with Facebook. This court case is going to keep on going and who knows when it’ll stop.

People sue other people for the stupidest reasons nowadays

Technology companies seem to get into quite a few lawsuits. They get into legal trouble over the silliest such as Google getting sued over giving bad directions and a Dutch woman trying to sue Pentium over allegedly being allergic to processer. 

Do you have any unusual stories about lawsuits? We would love to hear about your experiences and views. Please consider leaving a comment. Did you enjoy this article? Please share it with your friends and let everyone know how great it was!

Cold Calling for the Clueless Review - Improve your Telemarketing Skills Instantly!

When people hear the word Cold Calling a lot of people just do not like doing it. Some people even have fear of cold calling. Most people think that cold calling involves the same, monotonous work that does not produce no outcomes at all and is useless. Cold Calling can bring in a lot of clients for your business if done correctly.

Cold calling has many other different names; telesales, telemarketing, prospecting among a few. There is a lot of information available on the internet about cold calling but none are better then this guide.

When you purchase this guide you will learn how to call potential clients, know what to say to the clients, who to say it to, what to say and also what to do after the call. This guide will help you overcome any nerves you are having with cold calling and bring more confidence in yourself and your calling abilities.

Ceridwyn Ruenheck the author of this guide is a successful telemarketer and entrepreneur who has years and years of experience of telemarketing. Ceri Ruenheck is the owner of telemarketing firm Its Your Call. 

How many times have you failed to land a contract because of your cold calling skills? What if you actually had to ability to close near enough any call and get the sale? Wouldn't that be great! Well with this guide you can. 

You can view this book on any smartphone including any iPhone and Android device as well as any Windows Phone. You can also view it on any ebook reader, laptop, tablet, and most other electronic devices.

This book is very effective and you will most definitely learn new things. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for anyone starting of in telemarketing, wanting to use telemarketing in their business or just want to improve on their existing skills. 

If you would like to purchase the guide please Click Here!

Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics of Northern Rock

In this article we will look at the Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics of Northern Rock. Northern Rock was a bank based in the United Kingdom that fell into a major financial crisis in 2007. Customers were worried they would lose their money so they queued outside the bank and tried to protect the capital that they had invested in the firm.

This article will discuss and analyse the different ethical and moral theories of Corporate Social Responsibility. The article will also provide an insight on the importance of applying ethical concepts and strategies to a business as well as discuss the future for CSR and make some reasonable predictions.

First you might want to know abit more about CSR and what it is. Corporate Social Responsibility aims to ensure that businesses do everything in an ethical manner. This means they should consider their social, environmental and economic impact as well as their influence on human rights.

It is a view of the corporation and its role in society that assumes a responsibility among firms to pursue goals in addition to profit maximisation and a responsibility among firm’s stakeholders to hold the firm accountable for its actions

CSR ensures that businesses focus on what is ethically and morally correct for the business and its employees while also maintaining a high level of social responsibility. Ethics looks to examine what should and can be done. There is no guarantee that ethical behaviour will be used in a business that uses CSR.

 

Customers queuing up to take their money out 

  

Who to blame for the failure of the bank?

Over forty years’ ago an economist named Milton Friedman, also winner of the Nobel Prize for his contribution to economics,  argued that “there is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits”.  Many individuals and companies share the ethos that Friedman had, as do Northern Rock. The directors have been taking a large salary for themselves thus leaving Northern Rock in a difficult situation.  The large salaries of the directors are not possible as the inflation rate at the time was 28%.

The huge salaries of the directors were one of the reasons that the bank, Northern Rock had collapsed.  This relates to egotism as the directors are taking salaries for themselves and not thinking about the company. Egotism is when an individual shows self-interest as a trait and does not think ethically or about others. The major directors of Northern Rock thought that their salaries were justifiable and they were using this salary and position of power to fuel their ego. Many customers of Northern Rock had lost their money invested in the bank and for many customers this was a substantial amount. However the bank did not just collapse because of the salaries of the directors, other factors which contributed towards the collapse were the continuous rise of inflation, gross domestic product and the government borrowing deficit reached 10% and the government had to go to the International Monetary Fund for a loan to see it through the predicament.

Executive pay is the total amount of pay or financial compensation an executive officer or director receives with a company. Executive pay can include or be a mixtures salary, bonuses, shares of the company stock, benefits, rewards and any other incentive paid out to the executive officer.

During the mid-1990s to 2006, Northern Rock were providing loans or mortgages to people who either because of their income, or lack of assets could not obtain a loan or mortgage. This lead to a large amount of debt being bought together for the individuals, another problem also occurred; they could not pay back their loans. This is a classic example of deontology as the banks did adhere to their obligations and duties when analysing a dilemma. This means that someone will do what they have to because it is they are ethically responsible to do so, in Northern Rock’s case they were giving out loans and mortgages to everyone.

CSR diagram

Utilitarianism is a factor to consider as to why shareholders should take into account the actions of the directors. Utilitarianism is when a firm will do anything to do good regardless of the outcome or how many people it will have a negative effect on. For example; someone who sacrifices their life to save a train full of people is fulfilling an obligation to society. In Northern Rock’s case they were giving loans to everyone regardless of their situation.

Although the collapse of Northern Rock was not entirely the director’s fault and a number of factors did contribute towards it such as the large loan pay-outs to customers who could not afford to pay back their loans. On the other hand because of the director’s large salary and the egoism from the directors, the bank collapsed.

A shareholder is someone who has invested resources into a particular company to receive equity in that specific firm. It is then up to the company to issue dividends to the shareholders. Dividends are a sum of money which is usually distributed by a company among its shareholders regularly. This is typically paid out quarterly during the financial year.

Time for Northern Rock ran out

To stop the directors from receiving such a large salary, shareholders could have intervened and either elected new directors or put a limit to the directors salary. If they were to do this then Northern Rock, would not be in as much financial trouble.

Maintaining Regulation for Northern Rock is very important for the bank. Regulation is a law, order or rule which is prescribed by an authority and especially to regulate conduct. It is important for banks to follow regulations set by higher authority, banks have to comply with the laws and regulations set.

Many firms have doubts about ethics and whether what they are doing is correct. Business Ethics in terms of issues of right and wrong, and quite naturally question whether there is any way difference from the law. The words ethics and morality are often used interchangeably, although many academic writers have proposed clear differences between the two terms (e.g. Crane 2000). Ethics represents an attempt to systemize and rationalise morality, typically into generalised rules that offer a solution to situations of moral uncertainty.

Directors may have deserved to earn such a large salary because they have worked themselves up over time. The Directors think they have earned such a high salary because they do that a lot of work around Northern Rock and this justifies it. They see the day to day running of the bank and they represent the shareholders, who can just as easily elect new directors if the currents ones are not performing to a good standard. On the other hand, higher authorities should put a cap on their earning potential and limit how much they can earn yearly. If the directors cannot justify such a high salary, then it is pointless and a waste of money to allow them to earn that much.

Corporate Social Responsibility proposes to ensure companies act on their business actions in a more ethical way. This means a company would have to take account of social and economic impacts as well as consideration of human rights.

There are many different opinions concerning the use of CSR. Friedman claims it is the responsibility of the business to make as much money as the business can without any regard for ethics. However Sternberg states that business ethics is based on the result of the business selling their products and services within the law and to behave ethically.

The shareholders for Northern Rock could take action against the different directors because they are partially responsible for getting Northern Rock into such financial trouble and their arrogance caused the bank to go into a crisis. However the directors have also worked their way to their position and deserve to earn however much they earn.

What about Northern Rock's customers?

Savers of Northern Rock should have their savings guaranteed by the government because if they were not, savers would lose all their money. This would be very unethical and unfair for the savers.  There are various stakeholders involved with Northern Rock and the bank.  A stakeholder is someone who is affected by the business in anyway. A major stakeholder of Northern Rock were the shareholders as they would want the best possible dividends paid out to them regularly so they would remain happy with the company. The shareholders would want the share prices to increase, so they can gain more capital. As the shareholders also invest money into the bank they would want an increase in return capital.

Customers are one of the bank’s key stakeholders as they have savings with Northern Rock and use their services such as taking a loan or mortgage out. During the banking crisis savers were behaving very unethically as they were just thinking of themselves, this is considered as egoism. In 2008, a major financial comparison site estimated 1 in 10 adults in the UK spend more than they earn in a month. In a ten year gap between 1997 and 2007 the number of credit cards increased from 36 million to an astonishing 71 million. These statistics support the fact that customers just wanted money so they could finance a certain lifestyle. In September 2007 many first time buyers were borrowing more than 90% of the cost of the house they were purchasing. Most of the customers could not afford to repay the loan payment thus the reason for the bank’s collapse.

The Financial Services Authority would also play a stakeholder for Northern Rock as they have to approve and authorise everything that Northern Rock would have to do. Customers are also a key stakeholder in the bank as they are the users.  As the bank was a pivotal part of the community, the customers would be affected as it was a Northern bank and the community would be proud of Northern Rock.  Shareholders could have capped the director’s salary.

Employees are affected by the business and are one of the main shareholders of Northern Rock. When the employee starts work with Northern Rock they have a contract of Employment which states the employment conditions, rights, responsibilities and duties. Employees follow the deontology theory which states that people should follow and adhere to their obligations and responsibilities. During the banking failure 1/3 of the banks employees lost their jobs.

The local community is another stakeholder in Northern Rock because they used to provide financial support and funding for the local community. Without the support of the bank the local community would suffer in terms of financial support.

The government is involved in the business and is a major stakeholder. The government are affected by them as they fund the bank and authorise some of the transactions that are made by the bank. Without the authorisation of the government, Northern Rock would not be able to complete their transactions with their customers and they would not be able to give out loans and mortgages. Employees are affected by the bank because they work for Northern Rock and without people working for them, Northern Rock would not be able to run.

The Financial Services Authority is a stakeholder in Northern Rock as they would want the fair treatment of customers. The Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (DGSD), which was first adopted in 1994, governs the operation of deposit guarantee schemes all over the European Economic Area.  This meant that if the bank was the collapse customers would have their savings saved and they would not lose everything.

The government displayed signs of justice when they privatised Northern Rock to take them out of the banking crisis. They were trying act ethically while maintaining fairness and interactional. They made sure the investors in Northern Rock, including the customers, had compensation for the banking failure.

Northern Rock were regulated and by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). This means all of the loans and mortgages that Northern Rock issue, had to go through the Financial Services Authority (FSA).  The government protect up to £85,000 of the customers money that is deposited within Northern Rock by customers. They are being socially responsible and are applying CSR to their actions and they are doing what is ethically correct. The government have implemented virtue ethics and utilitarianism as they were trying to do the greater amount of good for the greater amount of people. They protected some of the customer’s money and behaved ethically and morally correct.

 This video explains what CSR is

The bank collapsed in 2007 when Northern Rock ran into trouble. There are many people that are responsible for the failure of the bank.  There are various stakeholders involved in the bank. The Bank of England is one of the firm’s main stakeholders. The Bank of England issues Northern Rock with all the monies needed for financial transactions. The Bank of England could be responsible for the failure of the bank as a problem could have occurred because the Bank of England does not have enough money to support the transactions.

Moral Responsibility is when a person praises, punishes or rewards for an act for which a person is morally responsible. In Northern Rock’s case there are many people who are morally responsible for the failure of the bank. One of the reasons for the failure of the bank is the government. The government’s actions can be linked to Utilitarianism as they were issuing out loans and mortgages to customers who could not afford to pay back their loans.

Loans were provided to people, who, because of their job or income and the lack of assets or the property that the customer wanted to purchase, for this simple fact they could not obtain a loan or mortgage. Due to the booming property market from the mid-1990s to 2006, banks including Northern Rock, allowed much riskier lending to happen. This led to multiple debt problems for the people that took these loans out and they were not able to pay back their initial loan. It could also be seen as Deontology as they followed the rules, irrespective of the outcome.

Shareholders are partially to blame for the banking crisis as well. As shareholders could have capped the director’s salary or limited their salary to make sure they were not earning above a certain amount. However as they never did this, it lead to further predicaments and decline for Northern Rock.

Customers are also morally responsible for the failure of Northern Rock as they carried on taking out loans and mortgages regardless of knowing they would not have enough money to pay them back. They were trying to maintain and live a lifestyle that was out of their financial reach. This could be seen as Egoism as the customer would be taking out loans for their own personal self-interest regardless of the consequences.

Teleology is another ethical theory that can apply to both Northern Rock and their customers, this is when someone suits themselves and disregards any laws/behaviours and regulations which may prevent their behaviour.

US Economist Milton Friedman stated, "There is one and only one social responsibility of business-to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud." Friedman states how a business should use everything in its power including its resources, to increase its profits as long as it is legal and not deception or fraud. This is exactly what the shareholders job is to do within the company. This could be seen as Egoism as the business would just want to maximize its profits and have self-interest.

The directors of Northern Rock also contributed to the banking failure. The directors were taking an astronomical salary for themselves and not thinking about ethics or the bank itself, however the directors were performing their job and trying their best to keep the bank afloat. Egoism does contribute for the director’s high salary and teleology as the directors did not think about any laws and regulations in place and just did what they wanted. An ethical theory that applies to the directors in this case is teleology as they suited themselves while disregarding any laws and regulations in place which may prevent their behaviour.

Banks went ahead and allowed much riskier lending and did not contemplate the economic down turn was distressing everyone; this could be due to greed or not have proper control of finances.

They went ahead and started lending out loans which are they could not afford to give out, this resulted in way more customers coming to Northern Rock for a loan. Northern Rock were willing to lend customers up to £180,000, for those whose income was only at £30,000 while most other banks would not risk that much money.

Future of CSR and Northern Rock

Business Ethics is how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society.  The banking situation has not improved by much over the years since Northern Rock’s collapse.

Corporate Social Responsibility has grown to the status of a career and is being discussed on the world stage. Companies which plan to be, or are, leaders in corporate social responsibility are faced by rising public expectations, increasing innovation and increased social problems. They are forced to chart their CSR course and document their actions.

Over the years the financial market has seen a massive meltdown due to the simple fact of over lending, poor regulation and over borrowing. Northern Rock is a prime example of how failing to act in accordance with CSR can not only upset the business but it can also jeopardise the relationship of the customers, shareholders and stakeholders. Due to their irresponsible behaviour and their lack of concern of what may happen due to their actions, Northern Rock faced their punishment in the mass financial crisis in 2008.

There are many lessons to be learned from Northern Rock’s mistake and their lack of acknowledgement for CSR. One of the main lessons to learn from the failure of the firm is to not lend money to customers who cannot afford to pay the payment back. Most Customers were just taking credit out to finance their lifestyles rather than needs according to Standard Life bank. This is also the case for the directors of Northern Rock as they were getting paid huge amounts of money and not justifying the amount they were getting paid. The massive salaries were another reason of the bank’s collapse; directors were just trying to fund their lavishing lifestyle regardless of the outcome.

Politically, there were always those people who wished the bank was to fail. Massive salaries were being to business executives and this lead to the view that things should be sorted out. Television pictures portraying angry depositors and savers of Northern Rock instigated major political problems for the government.

Firms have to think about their shareholders when they are developing new strategies for their business. The stakeholder approach was designed as a model for improving the efficiency of the firm.

Northern Rock were willing to provide customers with higher loans while other mortgage lenders were not prepared to do this. The firm made loans that were not valued much and an increase in repossessions followed nationally.

In the future, CSR optimists predict that a number of companies and firms will be convinced to implement a CSR strategy into their operations. An increasing amount of businesses see CSR as increased competitiveness and profitability. Corporate Social Responsibility is part of a search for a new social contract between business and society. This new contract will not necessarily make a new set of rules but a new set of norms arrived through experimentation.

Conculsion

Many pessimists believe that CSR will not be clear enough for firms to take it up, unless it is legislated or there are other added incentives. They also believe that CSR will not be in the public eye and there won’t be clarity to what CSR is and why it is so important for a business to implement Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics. It will become labelled as surplus to requirements and increasing the costs of running the business. Companies who once implemented and embraced CSR will lose interest and pursue other interests and objectives.

Even though there is a major contrast in views of social impact and whether corporate responsibility works, the majority of researchers agree that in 5 – 10 years from now CSR will become much more main-stream with businesses. CSR in the future will become part of a business’s basic model and not an add-on. Most of the progress and commitment to CSR may be slow progress but it would increase the over time within a 5 – 10 year time frame.

Careless loans and mortgages were given to people who showed no means of paying the loan back; this showed how Northern Rock neglected CSR. For this reason, firms try to do everything to make sure that they do not suffer the same fate as Northern Rock, and they try to make their business ethically correct. If businesses were to perform an analysis on how they impacted and influenced society, it would lessen the problems for some businesses.

This article has been pretty long and if you have read the whole article I would like to thank you. I would appreciate you leaving a comment and if you could share this article I would be very grateful. Don't forget to sign up to the RSS Feed and like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter .

How to Develop Confidence - 5 Steps to Develop Confidence

The key to becoming a successful ad great marketer is confidence. Confidence is one of the most important things you can develop and it is vital if you would like to become successful on the internet and in business. In fact you need confidence to do anything in life.

Being able to develop and maintain strong confidence is an important part of finding success in life. Of course, not everyone knows how to develop this confidence and self esteem, much less keep it through all of the difficulties faced on a daily basis. Many people find it hard to do either, and that greatly affects the rest of their lives. Rather than keep that low self esteem and avoid life completely, you can begin to build yourself up and improve your self-confidence. There are 5 quick ways to improve confidence and keep it strong through everything you do. When these steps handled properly and approached with the right attitude, this can help you to have unstoppable confidence and do what you need to do without anything standing in your way.

1.            Look at the good

Everyone has good and bad, and you need to put all of your focus on the good if you want to have unstoppable confidence. Looking at what you have done in life, all that you have known and found success with, will allow you to see just how much you have done in life. Even if you feel that list is short, just remember that you have done something and that you are far greater than that low self esteem would have you believe. This is one of the more important steps because it allows you to appreciate yourself a little more, giving you the boost you need to improve your self-confidence.

2.            Know what you can do and then do better

No matter who you are, you have your limits. No one person can do everything in the world in the best way possible and find success, regardless of what they say. Look at your current limitations and respect them, understand them. If you fail when going further, remember that this is normal. Most people find it difficult to push themselves, but that does not mean you should not try. When looking into how to develop greater confidence, the biggest is to find greater success. Go further and raise your limitations, make yourself better through hard work and determination.

3.            Show your confidence

This is a simple and quick way to improve your self-confidence. In all the steps for the 5 quick ways to improve confidence, this is the one everyone can do. Smile, improve your posture, and make yourself appear more confident. When you shine on the outside, you might start letting that sink to the inside. It is also a great way to attract more people to you, as well as attract more success.

4.            Do not let failures bring you down

This one might not be so quick for some people. If you feel that your lack of confidence is due to failures, try to remember that everyone experiences these in life. Look through where things have gone wrong and turn them into a learning experience. Of all the how to steps, this is the one you cannot forget.

5.            Make goals and picture yourself being victorious

The last of the 5 quick ways to improve confidence, this gives you the chance to begin bettering yourself. When you want to have unstoppable confidence, you have to start having goals and meeting them, making more successes and bringing about more happiness in life.

Do you have any of your own tips you would like to share with us? Then post them in the comment section below. Remember to like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter and Google Plus. 

Ten Tips to get to the Top of Search Engines

Getting to the top of search engines can be really challenging. For some people it is their dream to get to the top of the search engines. If you receive traffic from search engines it can be beneficial for you as it will bring a lot of traffic towards your website however getting traffic through search engines is not the only way to get traffic.

It can be hard to get started with getting found by Google and Co but once you have it does get a lot more easier. In this article you will get the know our top ten tips on getting to the top of search engines and how to stay at the top.

10. Write your content for humans, not search engines

You might have heard this one before but it really is important. Search engines base it on the keywords that people type in. If you use too many keywords and write just for search engines, most search engines would penalize you. It is best to write for your target audience instead of search engines. You should find out who your target audience is if you don't. Once you start writing your content for your target audience, you sites performance should go up.

9. Make sure you have a good domain name

Having a good domain name helps get to the top of search engines. Make sure whatever the name you choose it has something to do with the topic of blog. For example if your blog is about golf, you should have the name in your URL like www.ilovegolf.com. To get a good domain name at a cheap price at GoDaddy.

8. Have a good URL Structure

If you have a good URL structure for your website then your SEO is much better. Google gives more plus points if you have a good URL structure. For example which one is better;

www.themarketingguy.net/search-engines

www.themarketingguy.net/gh4582dhfsx

The first one is better because it describes what the page is going to be about, it tells you the page will be about search engines and this helps the search engine rank your page better. On the other hand the second one is just a bunch of random numbers so it won't benefit you in terms of SEO. So always remember to change the name of your URL to get ranked better in search engines.

7.  The Title of your Page

Getting the title of your page is very important. Search Engines take the title as a main thing and the title is what makes users click your website in search results. Have a good title and you will start to get better results. If you had a page about getting to the top of Google, an example of a good title would be;

How to Get to the top of Google

x ways to improve your ranking in search engines

A good title is descriptive and uses keywords that its users may be using. Use Google's Keyword Planner to see what keywords are popular. Also be sure to fill in the description and the META tags to let Google and other search engines know about your new content. Find out more about META Tags. Don't just stuff keywords in for the sake of it, you will get penalized for it. Yeah we know, search engines are really strict...

6. Get Social!

If you haven't already get social. Get a Facebook and Twitter account running for your website and start sharing your content on their as well. Google are using the Google +1 Button and it does place some significance on search engine results. 

Search Engines do rank content based on shares and retweets on Social Media websites.

5. Don't Duplicate Content and Copy Content from other websites

This is a big no-no. For one your website will look unprofessional and if you copy from another website people will not see it as an authority website and instead of gaining more traffic and visitors, you will end up losing more traffic. 

Google have not confirmed that they penalize websites but don't take the risk. Trust us don't do it, it's not worth it!

4. Guest Posting and Guest Blogging

Guest Posts are the classic way of getting your website ranked on search engines and it still works wonders. The Concept of Guest Blogging is simple really, you write an article for another blog which may be about anything and you post a link for your site at the end of the article which users can go to. 

It may be slightly harder to acquire guest posts but they do carry more authority for the search engines and your site will be ranked higher. 

Here is a great article that teaches you how to write an effective guest post.

3. Give away something FREE

Giving away something for free will not only build followers for your blog or website but it will also help your site rank better on search engines. Let me explain. People love free stuff. So they will be using FREE as a keyword to look for sites offering free stuff. Free is one of the most searched for term on the internet and people.

You can give away anything for free. Do you have any ebooks you would like to offer for free? Can you make your own Wordpress theme? Offer it for free. Your website will benefit from it.

2. Share your Site with everyone!

Make sure you spread your website and share it on a range of different websites. You could write Press Releases, Write articles on Article sharing websites, Share on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and share on Social Media websites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious.

Get your visitors to share it on social network and social media sites and Google and other search engines will rank your site higher. 

1. Quality over Quantity

Writing quality posts will be better then writing a lot of posts. Google rank content based on quality and relevance of what the user is searching for. If you answer everything that the user is looking for in their search then Google will rank your site higher than the rest. It might be hard to write a quality article but it will be worth it.

Check out this article on how to write a quality article.

Do you have any of your own tips. Share your tips with everyone in the comment section below, we would love to hear from you!

Millionaire MBA Business Mentoring Program Review

How would you like to learn from 29 of the most successful self-made millionaires in the UK? With the Millionaire MBA Business Mentoring Program you can learn from some of the most successful entrepreneurs behind Carpet Right, Cobra Beer and Bannatyne Fitness. Millionaire MBA is more than 30 hours of audio recorded onto MP3. Millionaire MBA gives in depth interviews of more than 25 entrepreneurs. These interviews tell you how they started to how they rose to success and you can replicate what they have done to get success as well.

Richard Parkes Cordock is the author of the program of Millionaire MBA, he is also a qualified accountant as well as a NLP Practitioner. He is a regular speaker on getting the right mindset of becoming a millionaire.

You can save Millionaire MBA as a MP3 and listen to it on your Smartphone, MP3 Player, Computer or anything else. The best thing is you can listen to it wherever you are.

As well as the 30+ hours you receive, you also receive a 100 page PDF Workbook that compliments the core mentoring program, it is full of exercises, summaries and practical business building. You will also receive 500+ pages of written transcripts. You can make notes on them, print them off or do whatever you want to them.

The entrepreneurs included in this program are Duncan Bannatyne, Lord Harris, Sir Tom Hunter as well as many other successful self made millionaires. They answered 25 identical questions each and each question went deeper into what made them successful, how they set goals and how they received some extraordinary results. Some of the questions that they were asked included;

• What is the millionaire mindset?
• What is the difference between you and others who haven't achieved your level of success?
• How did you know you'd be successful as an entrepreneur?
• What is your appetite for risk?
• What are the fundamentals of business?
• How do you make a million?
• And many more questions.

Each answer was recorded using high quality digital recording equipment, and their responses were chopped up, edited, and using the principles of NLP (Neuro Linguistic programming), analysed to find a consistent thinking pattern which is common amongst self-made millionaire entrepreneurs.

The output of that work is Millionaire MBA Business Mentoring Programme - a 'timeless' 40-day audio-based mentoring programme which teaches you to think like a self-made millionaire entrepreneur. So, can Millionaire MBA (Mentoring By Audio) help you become successful as an entrepreneur? Again, the answer is 'yes, no, maybe', it's very much up to you.

The tools are here for you to learn how successful self-made millionaire entrepreneurs think, act and make decisions - and the programme has been designed to help you think this way too. How you use the information, advice and guidance in Millionaire MBA, is up to you!
If you enjoyed this review and are interested in purchasing the product please Click Here!

The Kaizen Marketing System Review - Double your Profits in 180 Days!

The Kaizen Marketing System is a product that is designed to improve your businesses marketing and produce you results guaranteed. Alexi Neocleous is the creator of this system and is a business growth specialist and professional copywriter. First you might like to know what Kaizen actually means.

Kaizen is a Japanese word which literally translates to 'continuous improvement' or 'change for the best'. Kaizen has been applied to many different industries including; manufacturing, banking, healthcare, engineering, business and many more different industries. Car Manufacturing giant Toyota made Kaizen rise to prominence with them applying Kaizen in their manufacturing process.

This program promises to double your businesses' profits in 180 days or less guaranteed. This program tells you how to market your business and raise the awarness of your business. This is a must buy for any marketer or even anyone looking to improve the results of their business. The Kaizen Marketing System not only tells you how to market your business effectively. It also tells you how to become a great copywriter, telemarketer, entrepreneur and much more.

When marketing their business most people do not know where to start. This is where Alexi Neocleous comes in. Alexi tells you all about marketing your business. In this program he will also tell you;

• How to get free publicity through TV, Newspaper and Radio 
• Why an ancient old Japanese tradition is the secret behind my amazing new formula!
• How to get tons of referrals and keep generating even more
• How to bring hundreds, if not thousands of fresh leads to buy your product
• How to steal customers from your competitors using a secret technique

This is just a preview of what you will learn in the program.

Alexi also offers a 60 day money back guarantee. All you need to do is follow the formula and you will become successful. For those of you that are doubting this program, this is not a scam and is 100% genuine.

The product is very user friendly and is jargon free. Lets put it like this, even your Grandma could understand this system. It is fully complete with instructions, illustrations, pictures and diagrams teaching you how everything is done.

You also get 5 free bonuses with The Kaizen Marketing system and even if you don't like the system, you get to keep the bonuses with no further charge to you. This is a very excellent guide in which you will learn an abundance of information from. We highly recommend this guide as it is written in a simple style while also being very informative. If you are interested in buying this system please click below to buy it.


Click Here!

The Emergence of Social Media - Why you NEED to use Social Media in your Business

Social media and the internet go hand in hand, and while most business owners have their hands tied with their day to day operations, it is crucial to keep up with the latest tools and strategies that can enhance your business presence. According to a recent survey by the Wall Street Journal, six out of ten business owners claim that social media tools have proved to be invaluable to their company’s growth. With this surge in appeal and significance in social media, getting and managing the right tools for your business may seem daunting, and if you’re struggling to figure out what works and what doesn't, listed below are few avenues to explore.
 

Batman doesn't really like social media

While there are many concerns regarding social media tools for business owners, the most significant ones are building and maintaining online presence, time management, brand monitoring and attracting new customers. As more and more businesses flock towards Twitter, keeping track of tweets can be frustrating, and tweetchat allows you to do just that. This tool gives you your very own tweet space for any chat you’re following, and also helps you hide and or feature specific tweeters.

One of the most important reasons to host a website is to be found by people that are searching for products and services related to your business. This is why it is important to optimize social media content, and the Keyword Tool by Google makes this extremely easy. This platform identifies global monthly searches, level of competition, local monthly searches and approximate cost per click. These characteristics help you optimize your blog content, website text, Twitter tweets and Facebook posts, which helps people discover you business through social sharing.

Facebook fan pages are one of the most significant social media tools, and with 800 million + users, there is no better audience. There are many reasons to create a Facebook fan page for your business such as social plugins for your website, unlimited fan base, advertising options, opportunities to portray your brand through many custom applications and tabs, demographic inclined advertising options and the chance to interact in the website through your brand name. 

Anywhere else and you would look crazy

Facebook’s timeline offers additional marketing space, a profile cover image and a page admin with a personal profile. Some proven stats to take off when using Facebook as a social media tool are visitor to fan conversion are doubled with customized welcome tabs and 48% of video referrals are from the website. A highly versatile and indispensible tool, YouTube is an all in one solution for all your social media needs. New to their website is their advanced analytics tool, which gives you insight into potential consumers based on your audience interests.

Stats about YouTube include 2 billion videos watched daily, 70% of all traffic on the mobile web is streamed though the website, and the website attracts approximately 85 million viewers daily. All told, the various social media sites account for a large number of revenue from business owners, and the reasons for this is quite evident. 

Thanks for reading this article. We hope you have enjoyed it and if you did please consider leaving a comment below. Do you have strategies that you want to share? What social media websites do you use? Please share below. 

On a different note, here is a completely off topic video of cats doing funny stuff! Enjoy!

Case Study: Domino's PIzza Marketing Strategy

Domino’s Pizza a global pizza company which specialise in delivery, its headquarters are situated in the USA. Founded in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States and has over 9,000 corporate and franchised stores in 60 countries and all 50 U.S. states. Domino's Pizza was sold to Bain Capital in 1998 and went public in 2004. In this article we will discuss the different strategies that Domino's Pizza use and implement into their business. We will also talk about the various competitors of Domino's and how much of the market share they own.

We will look at the market trends of Domino's and the STP process (it stands for Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning). This is a very important concept used in marketing and shows how a company chooses to compete in a market. The main aim of the STP process is to guide the company to the implementation of an appropriate marketing mix.

Finally we will look at the SWOT Analysis of Domino's Pizza and we will look at the different ways Domino's could improve upon their marketing strategy.

Domino’s Pizza is in a very competitive market and there is a lot of competition for Domino’s Pizza including Pizza Hut and Pizza Express. They also have a lot of local competitors as well. At the end of the year 2007 they made $1.4 Billion in revenue and over $190M in operating income. Domino's Pizza have many different competitors, including;

Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut Is a restaurant chain and international franchise based in Addison, Texas, USA (a northern suburb of Dallas) specializing in American-style pizza along with side dishes including (depending on location): buffalo wings. Pizza Hut is the world's largest pizza restaurant chain and is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., whose restaurants total approximately 34,000 restaurants, delivery-carry out units, and kiosks in 100 countries.  Pizza Hut currently own 15% of the market share.

Pizza Express

Another competitor for Domino’s Pizza is Pizza Express. However Pizza Express is not similar to Domino’s Pizza as Pizza Express is a chain of restaurants and Domino’s Pizza is a delivery company.

In 1965, Peter Boizot opened a business called Pizza Express, when he opened the first restaurant in Wardour Street, London. The chain expanded, initially as a franchise operation. In 1993 Pizza Express went public and turned into a PLC, this was a smart move for the company as this means they can improve their financial position and have better publicity.

They have a lot of loyal customers and this helps them build and make their brand even stronger. Having loyal customers means that their customers would only go to them and not their competitors. They also have a strong management team and a strong brand image.

Other Non Direct Competitors

Domino’s Pizza has a lot of competitors as the fast food business is very competitive. Domino’s Pizza main two direct competitors are Pizza Express and Pizza Hut but they have a lot of indirect competitors that do not sell pizzas but do sell fast food.

1. o   McDonalds

McDonalds are not direct competitors but because they sell fast food they are competitors in one way. McDonalds are the market leaders of their market and because of this Domino’s would have to be vary of them.

1. o   KFC

KFC is a fast food restaurant that specialises in selling Chicken. In particular it specialises selling Southern Fried Chicken.

1. o   Subway

Subway is one of the fastest growing franchise restaurants. Subway mainly sells submarine sandwiches and salads but now has also moved into selling wraps and snacks. 

1. o   Burger King

Burger King is also a competitor of Domino’s Pizza although it does not directly compete against Domino’s Pizza. Burger king specialises in selling burgers.

Market Trends

In the UK, the number of fast-food and home-delivery restaurants such as McDonald’s, KFC and Domino’s Pizza has been increasing rapidly over the past 5 years. As of April 2008, Domino's held an impressive 19% market share in domestic pizza deliveries. Subway, in particular, has seen an explosion in its number of high-street outlets. This has resulted in a large amount of competition in the market, but has also been a key factor in the increased value sales — more branches means that more consumers have better access to fast food. The fact that the menus at such establishments are generally cheap has also proved popular with the public because of the recession.

There has been a lot of negative publicity about the industry of late; its response has been, in some cases, to start offering healthier alternatives on its menus, such as salads, or to actively work to reduce levels of sugar, salt and fat in the food that is served.

The sandwich sector has particularly benefited from the Government’s campaign, as it is often regarded as a healthier option than other types of fast food, such as burgers.

The value of the fast-food sector has increased by 16.4% over the past 5 years, rising from £8.33bn in 2006 to £9.7bn in 2010. Further increases are predicted for the future, with Key Note projecting that value sales of fast food will top the £10bn mark for the first time in 2011, reaching £10.08bn. In the long term, Key Note has predicted that the fast-food and home-delivery sector will have grown to £11.86bn by 2015, up by 17.7% from 2011 and up by 42.3% from 2006.

Food price inflation has generally risen above the rate of general inflation in the past year, meaning that the prices of some foods have increased exponentially. Rising wheat prices, for example, have pushed up the price of bread and bread products quite rapidly; given its position as a staple ingredient

An advertisement for Domino's Pizza

Segmentation

Segmentation is the process of splitting (segmenting) the entire market (everyone) into smaller groups that share similar traits.

Domino's Pizza is located in more than 60 countries. The rights to own operate and franchise branches of the chain in Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Principality of Monaco are currently owned by Domino's Pizza Enterprises, having been sold off by the parent company between 1993 and 2007. The master franchises for the UK and Ireland were purchased by Domino's Pizza Group, now publicly traded as Domino's Pizza UK & IRL, in 1993.

Domino’s Pizza has a large customer base but mainly target the working class and lower- middle class. The socio-economic group they would target would be C1-C2 and below. These are people with jobs such as electricians, plumbers, shop floor supervisors and casual labourers.  These groups have less income and they would buy from Domino’s Pizza, whereas people in the group A and B would maybe go to a high end restaurant. 

Domino’s Pizza target bachelors, students and professionals who have no time to prepare food and want food as fast as possible. They targeted both genders, but according to a Mintel report they target males more. Market research had revealed that Domino’s market demographic was culturally diverse.

The company targets students a lot and often use promotions to get students to purchase from them. Students are a good target market for them because takeaway food requires no effort from the person and they deliver really quickly.

A quarter of consumers have cut back on takeaways/ home delivery to save money.

Young men are ordering takeaways/ home deliveries because they felt like staying in and procrastinate. In contrast, women order takeaways/ home deliveries because home deliveries and takeaways make a nice change from what these women would normally eat.

Domino’s Pizza has over 9,000 outlets in over 60 countries allowing people to buy all over the world and making Domino’s Pizza a global company.

Targeting

Domino’s Pizza should target the Muslim community by offering Halal food and Halal pizzas.  This would be a successful venture for the company because they would make a lot more revenue from the sale of halal food as the Muslim community is growing.

Another target group Domino’s Pizza should target is healthy food aimed at healthy people that want to stay fit and healthy while still eating their favourite foods. They could introduce salads and wraps or an alternative pizza.

A group they could also target is different nationalities such as polish or Dutch. They could use their food and make special pizzas according to their culture and nationality.

Positioning

By targeting the Muslim community Domino’ Pizza would gain a lot of popularity In the UK alone there are 2.869 million Muslims according to the PEW research center, (http://features.pewforum.org/muslim/number-of-muslims-in-western-europe.html) and target this many Muslims would mean that the profit and revenue of their business would rise up.

There is a growing target in people trying to get fit and people being healthy therefore people want to eat healthy food. Domino’s Pizza is classed as fattening food and so if they introduced healthy food such as low fat pizzas and sides not cooked in oil they would appeal to a lot more people. Statistics show people live longer by eating healthy and this should mean Domino’s Pizza should sell healthier food.

If they made a pizza that targeted different people and cultures this would prove a success. This is because a lot of people miss their own culture and miss their own food and if Domino’s Pizza introduced a new range of food and pizza’s, this would appeal to a lot more foreign people. Statistics show that one in nine people living in the UK are foreign, (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4797916/One-in-nine-people-living-in-Britain-is-foreign-figures-show.html) so if they entered this segment it benefit Domino’s Pizza and would have more profit.

 One of Domino's Pizzas' classic commercials from 1985

SWOT Analysis

(1)Strengths

o   Starting in 1973, an advertising campaign run by Domino’s Pizza claimed to guarantee to have their customers pizzas delivered to them in ’30 minutes or less’, if not the pizza is free. This campaign was doing great and bought a lot of attention towards the company however market momentum was quickly lost when a woman in St. Louis was involved an automobile accident with a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver. News turned into bad publicity and in 1993 the 30-minute guarantee was discontinued. The 30-minute guarantee still runs in stores in India.

o   Domino’s strength, the ‘S’ in a SWOT analysis, was their ability to produce and deliver a product faster and more efficiently than their competition. Not promoting the 30-minute guarantee created a level playing field allowing the focus to shift toward product and price

o   Domino’s Pizza is a global corporation and operates in over 60 countries. This makes them known worldwide and they have an excellent reputation throughout the world. 

o   They are the market leader in what they do and have more than 5,000 stores in the US. They are a global franchise so they are continually growing. They have a continually strong brand image and are always improving it.

o   Their marketing and advertising campaign is very strong and helps them draw in millions of customers. Another thing that makes Domino’s Pizza a market leader is the supply chain and distribution network. It has also enabled to keep pace with the technology by offering menus.

o   They are also opening branches in Tesco stores across the country. They stuck a partnership with them and this deal will see them tap into a new market and make a higher profit margin.

o   Domino’s Pizza can open a lot of stores through franchises

o   They have a lot of capital and are in a strong financial position because of their continuous success.

(2)Weakness

o   The sales are starting to slow and declining same-store sales. This is because of the economic situation and people not being able to afford takeaway food as it is not counted as a necessity

o   The sales are very slow growing and some of the same-store sales are declining. Its ambiance is not up to its competitors.

o   Menu is not elaborated and modified as compare to other chains.

o   Another big point for them is that more and more people are going towards healthy food and as Domino’s Pizza is seen as an unhealthy option Domino’s Pizza would either have to introduce a different more healthy range and they would have to change their brand image.

(3)Opportunities

o   Britain's biggest pizza delivery firm also said that it expected two-thirds of its sales to come from online in five years' time. Online sales currently account for £128m of total sales of £485m, roughly a quarter.

o   There is a growing presence in emerging markets, particularly in India and China and Domino’s Pizza should target these markets as they are continually growing and would be beneficial for the company as a whole.

o   Leverage supply chain & distribution system to introduce new products

o   Domino’s Pizza was planning to launch an Android and iPad app to accompany its iPhone app, which generated £1m of sales in its first three months of operation.

o   Domino's also had a three-year deal to sponsor the ITV programme Britans Got Talent, which launched the career of Susan Boyle. This proved a success for Domino’s Pizza as they gained more popularity.

(4)Threats

o   Changing consumer habits towards healthier food choices and their continuous lifestyle change could mean less popularity for Domino’s Pizza.

o   Intensive competition from a fragmented number of small competitors

o   There is a big threat towards changing consumer habits towards healthier food choices. As more people are trying to go towards a healthier lifestyle, to change they would have to change their brand image and start to introduce healthier products in their product line.

o   Another threat is that franchise operations are being affected by currency exchange fluctuations. This is a major problem for them as it means they would not be able to open any more stores.

o   There is also intensive competition from a fragmented number of small competitors. This includes local competitors as they can afford to sell their products cheaper.

Domino's Pizza is a very large organisation and if you implement some of the techniques and strategies they use within their business, your business could grow a lot. We hope you have enjoyed this article and would like to thank you for reading this very long post. We would appreciate it if you would consider leaving a comment or leaving your opinion.